Industry Insider: Professional Photographers of America (PPA): June 2011 Archives

Professional Photographers of America (PPA): June 2011 Archives

Photographers are notorious for focusing more on their art than on their businesses. PPA has been working to change that mentality over the years with business education, business resources...and competitions like MarketShare.

MarketShare is the PPA's new marketing competition. It celebrates the creativity and effectiveness of photographers' marketing activities while spreading those ideas. The intent is that photographers will be able to gather up more inspiration for their own marketing by seeing what their peers have done (via the entries).

Photographers from PPA and our sister association the Society of Sport & Event Photographers (SEP) have until July 31, 2011, to enter online for free. There's a chance for the entrants' peers to vote on their favorites, and an expert judging for the best in each category (which will result in cash prizes). Those Best in Class winners will also get a free registration to Imaging USA 2012, where PPA and SEP members will vote to decide the all-around People's Choice winner from among them.

With this focus on the importance (and fun!) of marketing, PPA is again turning photographers' attention to business. After all, their success is our business.

One of our goals here at Professional Photographers of America (PPA) is to help photographers realize their potential. And one of the ways we inspire and offer advice is through Professional Photographer, our official magazine. It's also the perfect place for companies like you to have photography products reviewed.

After all, this is the magazine that pro photographers need to read, according to the Magazine Association of the Southeast's GAMMA Awards judges and our readers themselves.

There's No Better Place...
During those recent GAMMA Awards--which recognize editorial and design excellence in magazine publishing--Professional Photographer was named the best business-to-business/association magazine in the Southeast. Judges applauded the "highly practical content" and so much more (see all the 2011 awards and quotes here). Of special note, though, is the Best Service Journalism award granted to "The PPA Business Handbook," a business guide for photographers created through the findings of PPA's Financial Benchmark Survey. It was honored for "giving photographers exactly what they need to profitably run their businesses" with "actionable advice."

These awards validate Professional Photographer's 104 years of helping readers excel in the photographic industry with professional advice and inspiration. Plus, the simple fact that it has more paid subscribers than any other magazine in the industry speaks to the value photographers--your clients--place on its contents!

...To Submit Your Product for Review
And you can be a part of it with a product review. It's easy to submit your product for consideration:

Provide your product release or details about the product or service in the email.

Write your subject line in the following format: "For review: Company Name..."

It's always smart to be where your clients are, and Professional Photographer magazine is an award-winning location. If you're interested in more opportunities with the magazine, visit www.ppmag.com/mediakit.

We all use benchmarks every day to help assess where we are and how we need to get better. You may have started the year with a goal to lose weight or otherwise improve your health. If so, you're probably using a scale or measuring tape to keep track of your progress. Your doctor also uses benchmarks like your blood pressure or cholesterol readings as indicators of your overall well-being.

In the same way, PPA helps photographers measure the health of their current business practices through the Financial Benchmark Survey and its analysis. These tools give studios key performance indicators (benchmarks) based on financial data compiled from hundreds of studios. The PPA benchmarks are the industry standards, giving photographers goals to aim for when managing their numbers. And PPA uses those benchmarks to guide photographers to better success--by setting annual goals, tracking income and expenses against budgets, and recognizing ways to control costs while increasing profits.

PPA is the only organization that conducts such comprehensive financial analysis for photographers, and we're currently recruiting studios for the 2011 Benchmark Survey. By participating, photographers not only help themselves to a free analysis from PPA accountants, they also help the industry by providing the data used to build these benchmark tools--tools every photographer can use to improve bottom lines.

Expect to begin seeing results of the latest survey and analysis at Imaging USA in New Orleans. In the meantime, encourage your photographer customers to participate in PPA's Benchmark Survey--it's good business for everyone!

Imaging USA is where professional photographers go to start their year off right. It's your best customers' one-stop shop. It's the place they go to learn how to make more money.

And for you, it's the right place at the right time.

Imaging USA is your chance to impress, excite and motivate the influential decision makers in your core market. But are you? Will you? As you've probably heard before, the first impression you make is often the one that lasts. So, don't limit your Imaging USA exposure to your exhibit space, depending on walk-by traffic to have a successful show. Raise your brand, your products and your services above the rest with a sponsorship that guarantees your company stays top of mind.

Sponsorships can expand your company's Imaging USA convention and trade show experience, putting your name in highly visible and unexpected locations. They help you make big--and powerful--impressions on thousands of potential customers.